Saturday’s action continued two trends that have shaped the 2014 playoffs: Overtime action and blown two-goal leads.

Montreal came very close to winning back-to-back games at Boston’s TD Garden and improving to 6-0 in the playoffs, but they coughed up a 3-1 lead with less than 10 minutes left in regulation en route to a 5-3 loss.

In the opener of the Ducks-Kings series, Anaheim forward Teemu Selanne scored his first goal of the postseason at 8:08 of the third period. That marker stood as the potential winner until Marian Gaborik tied the game in the dying seconds of regulation time and then cemented his place as the contest’s hero by netting his second goal of the night 12:07 minutes into overtime.

While those teams rest up, the other remaining four squads will play today.

With goaltenders Darcy Kuemper, Niklas Backstrom, and Josh Harding unavailable, the Wild will once again put their faith in Ilya Bryzgalov. Wild coach Mike Yeo has publicly backed Bryzgalov, but as long as he’s between the pipes, he’s definitely Minnesota’s primary X-Factor.

Which isn’t to suggest that Bryzgalov deserves the blame for Chicago’s 5-2 victory in Game 1. The Blackhawks did a great job of outmaneuvering the Wild’s defense to set up some prime scoring opportunities. Patrick Kane’s game-winning goal in particular was a thing of beauty.

Minnesota got this far by squeaking by a young, enthusiastic, but still raw and largely inexperienced Colorado Avalanche team. There’s no question the Avalanche were also very talented, but Chicago is a whole different story. They’re a deep team that knows how to win together when the stakes are raised.

The Wild have their work cut out for them if they want to claw their way to the Western Conference Final, but a win today would rob the Blackhawks of home-ice advantage before Minnesota returns to the Xcel Energy Center, where they were 26-10-5 in the regular season and 3-0 in the first round.

The Penguins overcame a 2-0 deficit in Game 1 to force the contest to overtime, but still ended up losing courtesy of a strange sequence that technically involved two Rangers goals.

Although Pittsburgh had the better record in the regular season and has no shortage of talent, it’s debatable whether or not they were actually the favorites going into this series. They certainly have an uphill battle ahead of them now that they’ve lost home-ice advantage.

Whatever you want to label them as though, the Penguins are up to the task of winning this series. If Sidney Crosby enjoys a breakout game like Evgeni Malkin did in Game 6 of the first round, then that alone could tip the scales in favor of Pittsburgh. Even without that though, the Penguins have so many offensive options that even a goaltender as skilled as Henrik Lundqvist should be consistently challenged.

Tonight’s match is a continuation of a rough start to the series for these teams. They played in Game 1 on Friday and Game 3 will be in New York tomorrow.

The Los Angeles Kings “weren’t supposed” to come back from a 0-3 deficit against the San Jose Sharks in round one. Down some defensemen and undoubtedly a little winded from that clash with San Jose, it seemed like they were supposed to lose to the Anaheim Ducks in Game 1 on Saturday.

… But that’s why you acquire players like Marian Gaborik. It wasn’t enough for the talented winger (and pending unrestricted free agent) to score the game-tying goal with just seven seconds left; he also scored the game-winner in overtime to give the Kings a 3-2 OT win and 1-0 series lead.

While the shots were close to even (36-35 for the Kings), there were times that Los Angeles seemed addled, yet they scraped out a win that could be crucial over the long haul.

Here’s video of the game-tying goal with some interesting details:

There have been 9 game-tying goals in the final 2:30 of regulation in the 2014 #StanleyCup Playoffs. #NHL

With little surprise, things got heated between the two in-state rivals, with this exchange ranking among the most heated:

While Robyn Regehr seemingly suffered an injury he couldn’t return from – the Kings unsurprisingly weren’t forthcoming about it – other players managed to shake off ailments and even contribute on the offensive and/or defensive side. Ryan Getzlaf stood out in that regard:

Ducks control certain spans of play

Chalk it up to fatigue or two strong teams refusing to give up space against each other, but there were some moments when offense was definitely difficult to come by. Much was made about the Kings failing to register a shot on goal for more than 17 minutes of game time (though the exact amount of time seemed to beinquestion).

Teemu Selanne scored a big goal – and his first of the playoffs – thanks to this move on Jonathan Quick:

The Ducks carried much of the play through the first chunk of overtime, but there were heroic moments like these:

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Ultimately, it came down to huge breakthroughs in desperation moments for the Kings. Game 2 of this series takes place in Anaheim on Monday on NBCSN. If the Kings show us anything, it’s that a series often boasts plenty of highs and lows, so stay tuned.

It remains to be seen if future Hall of Famer Teemu Selanne’s first goal of the 2014 Stanley Cup playoffs will win Game 1 for the Anaheim Ducks, but it already made a little history.

The Globe & Mail’s James Mirtle mentions that Selanne became the third-oldest player to score a postseason goal in NHL history with his 2-1 tally against the Los Angeles Kings. (Feel free to correct, but by rough Hockey Reference math, Selanne is 43 years and 304 days old).

Here’s the 43rd career postseason goal for “The Finnish Flash.”

(Mirtle notes that Gordie Howe and Chris Chelios rank as the oldest and second-oldest, in case you’re wondering.)

The Ducks tried to get by without Ryan Getzlaf (upper body) in Game 4 of their first round series against the Dallas Stars and the results weren’t favorable for Anaheim. With the series now tied at 2-2, the Ducks confirmed Getzlaf will be back tonight.

Getzlaf had 31 goals and ranked second in the NHL with 87 points in the regular season. He was struck in the face by the puck during Anaheim’s playoff opener, but he still managed to play in the first three games of this series.

The Ducks won’t have defenseman Hampus Lindholm though as he’s dealing with a stiff neck.

Anaheim also plans on starting Frederik Andersen after he was pulled in Game 4 and forward Teemu Selanne will return after spending a game in the press box.

The Anaheim Ducks got off to a 2-0 series lead, but the Stars rallied back when the series headed to Dallas.

Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau tried to mix things up for Game 4 by scratching future Hall of Famer Teemu Selanne, but that move didn’t pay off, so the 43-year-old forward will be back in the lineup tonight.

Anaheim will also start goalie Frederik Andersen again despite the fact that he was yanked in Game 4 after allowing four goals on 25 shots. He has a 3.17 GAA and .898 save percentage in this series.

The only big unknown for the Ducks is whether or not Ryan Getzlaf will play after he missed Game 4 with an upper-body injury.

“It’s all about getting clearance at this point,” said Getzlaf. “It’s part of the process. We’ll see what happens later today.”

With or without him, this is a critical contest for the Ducks. The last thing they want is for the Stars to be on a three-game winning streak and on the brink of advancing when the series heads back to Dallas for Game 6.

Tonight’s game will start at 10:30 p.m. ET and air on NBCSN. You can also stream the contest online: